Selected quad for the lemma: order_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
order_n	face_n	front_n	move_v	2,472	5	9.6352	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B08601	War practically perform'd: shewing all the requisites belonging to a land-army, in marches, battels, and sieges. / Deduced from ancient and modern discipline by the experience of Capt. Nath. Boteler.	Boteler, Nathaniel.	1672 (1672)	Wing B6288D; ESTC R173344	93,172	256

much of the ranging and ordering of Armies for a fight we shall in the ensuing Chapter give some Advertisement touching the Dislodgings Retreats and Entrenchments of a Camp-Royal CHAP. IX Observations upon the certainty of Orders for dislodging a Camp Of Retreats when to be made in a Campagne and when to be made in narrows How to be ordered and the Reasons Of an Army forced to lodge in open Fields Of the encamping of an Army Of the forms of Trenches Of Guards due to Entrenchments and where to be placed Forms of Entrenchments when an over-powerful Enemy is very near BEing in this Chapter to speak of the Dislodgings Retreats and Entrenchments of a Camp-Royal we will first begin with the first of them An Army being to dislodge and the General having given notice hereof to the Lord Marshal he the Marshal is to do the like to the Quarter-master-General and the Quarter-master to the Provost-Marshal-General and he to the Quartermasters of the Regiments and they to the Colonels and Captains and those to their subordinate Officers who are to warn the common men Now in the first place the Provost-Marshal-General is to give order to the Provost-Marshals of the Regiments that they give Command to the Pioneers Sucklers and the rest that are not Souldiers to be in a readiness and employ themselves in the filling up of the Trenches that they are to forsake and in the firing of the Quarters and this to be done whilest the whole Camp are putting themselves into their Arms that so nothing may remain entire to give relief or any way to serve the Enemies turn after they are forsaken by themselves This being done and the one half of the Scouts sent before to make discoveries that Corner or Wing of the Army which lay next to the Enemie is first to stir seconded by the Body of the Vaunt-guard Then succeedeth the other Wing and then marcheth the Battel followed by the Artillery and Baggage covered with the Rear-guard closed with Troops of Horse serving withal as Scouts to the Army and to beat up Stragglers This hath been received for a general order of dislodgings But surely this cannot be so precisely and punctually observed but may and must suffer alterations according to the quality and condition of the Country and Ground that the dislodging is to be made in for hereby an Army may sometimes be forced to march in broken ranks at another time have liberty to do it in an entire body neither can the place of the Baggage be so ascertained to be either before or after the Middle-guard but that in some cases it may better be ordered in the Flank of the Army provided that that Flank be the securest part for the place of most security is always the most proper for the placing the impediments And thus much touching dislodgings of an Army As for the ordering of Retreats it is to be done in Battalia if the ground will allow it when the Enemy is in sight and in Front And in the first place the Rear is to march off and whilest they turn faces about from the Enemy the Van and Battel are to stand their ground as ready to receive all charges This done the Battel or Middle-guard is to move and in all points to observe the orders and manner fore-practised by the Rear and in the mean time the Van to make a stand and when the Rear and Middle-guard have again made Alt the Van it self is to retreat and to have the Wings of the Horse at the same time to move and flank with it And lest the Enemy should charge upon the Rear some numbers of Musqueteers with some Cornets of Horse are to man it And thus may a whole Army maintain and continue a Retreat so long as the Enemy shall continue in a pursuit and the ground be a Champian But if an Army in the retreat the Enemy following be to pass through any narrows as upon Dikes thorow Lanes over Bridges in this case assoon as any considerable part of the Foot is entered any of these streights the Horse are to pass in the Rear of that first Division and in the room whence these Horse departed a strong stand of Pikes well flanked with Musqueteers are to make it good against the Enemies Horse and to stand firm and keep their ground And for the bringing off of these Pikes and Shot it will be necessary that some Brest-work or half Moon or both be cast up at the point of the entrance upon the narrow wherein Musqueteers are to be lodged and if cause require some small Field-pieces as Drakes or the like to beat upon the Enemy at his approach and make good the entrance The which small Pieces may be brought off upon the Narrow in the Rear of all upon their proper Carriages with their muzzles towards the Enemy and upon all occasions to be guarded and secured by the Pikes in whose Rear they retreat Now the grounds and motives of this Order are That though during a retreat in a champian and open ground the Horse may be ordered to come up and retreat in the Rear because with a small wheeling about they may advantagiously charge the Enemies Horse in Flank if they should attempt to fall on upon that Rear and the Rear of the Foot also with faces about may the whilest receive the Enemies charge with the Body of their Pikes and gall them with the Shot wherewith they are lined Yet when an Army is to pass in any streight these Horse shall then best secure themselves by wheeling about into that Rear of the Division of Foot which hath first entered upon that streight for hereby a stand or alt may be made good against the charge of the Enemies Horse by the rest of the Pikes which are not entered upon the streight and these Pikes brought off under the favour of the Field-pieces and Musqueteers in the half Moon and behind the Brest-work formerly mentioned and they themselves brought off under the protection of the last Rear of Pikes and the Drakes or Field-pieces in the Rear of them to be secured partly by their own beating upon the Enemy as they retreat and partly by the last Reserve of Pikes and Shot when he chargeth home And the want of the making use of this order in our retreat at the Island of Rey was the visible cause of our miscarrying in it For all the while we marched in open ground though all our Horse retreated in the Rear of our Foot and the Enemy both in Horse and Foot doubled our number yet meddled they not with us but made alt when we did and marched when we did But our Forces being got up to the narrow of the Dike betwixt the Salt Pans and our Van and Middle-guard well entered upon the Dike and the Front of our Rear so close up with them that our Horse could not wheel to put themselves betwixt the Rear of them and the Front of our Rear the Enemie

between Eumenes and Craterus mentioned by Plutarch in Vita Eumenis where Eumenes placing the Horse before his Foot did it saith the Author because he held them the prime of his strength and therefore put upon them the hazard of the day and herein shewed himself both in counsel and action a brave and well-experienced General As for the best forms and fashions of Horse-battels the most ancient and then the most common was that of a Rhombe And this was in special account with the Thessalians witness Aelian cap. 18. who were reckoned for the best Horsemen of Greece as Xenothon reports them in his Hist. Graec. lib. 7. 644. D. and held that account to the time of King Pyrrus And for this form these reasons are given That it was fittest for all Encounters because the Horse thus postured were ready to turn Faces about any way upon all occasions That it could not be surprised in Flank or Rear as having the best and choice men in the Flank and the Commanders in every point of the Rhombe But the practice of our days consists most in the ordering of the Horse into square Bodies And the grounds hereof are That these forms are with most ease and facility to be put in order That they are aptest for the joynt movings of the Horse And that the Commanders do joyntly charge the Enemy in the Front which in no form can be done but this To speak freely of both these forms I opine with them who hold that the Rhombe in point of piercing and artificial breaking into the battel of an Army is the most proper unless perhaps that a Wedge be in the same case to be preferred for being narrow and pointed in the Front it naturally forceth a passage with the point and withal maketh way for the rest of the Body to follow and so without much ado piercing farther and farther it must necessarily hazard the breaking of the adverse Battel and so disperse it that afterwards execution may be done at pleasure On the other side the square Horse-battel in respect of doing execution and violent overthrowing of all in its way is to be preferred before any other for it bringeth more hands to fight and beareth down all things before it So that I see not but both these forms of Horse-battels may be held in use even in these times the one for entrance the other for bearing down this for a thorow execution that for a dispersion But there is one thing more in the ordering of Horse-battels of especial observation and that is their depth of which Leo his opinion was cap. 12. sect 40. that a Horse-battel was onely to be four in depth and his reasons were that bearing Lances the fifth was unprofitable because from thence their Lances could not reach to the Front neither saith he can Horse as Foot with their thickness or depth thrust one another forwards from behind and therefore in his opinion the number of four was sufficient for the depth in File And yet we find in Polybius that the Horse was for the most part in his time ordered eight in depth But this was in the Age of Lances In our now Pistol-world I finde the King of Swedens Horse which were ordered in the Wings of the Van at the battel of Lipzwick to be four in depth And those that were in the Wings of the Rear to be five in depth and so likewise were Tillies Horse In the battel of Lutzen the King of Swedens Horse were in no place above three in depth whereas Walsteins Horse were every where six It seems therefore that there can be no certain rule touching this particular but that it must be varied according to the number of Horse and the necessity of enlarging the fronts so that Aelians proportion may be received with most approbation for the general which is to double the number of the Front to the number of the Flank and as the number of the Troop ariseth to enlarge the length of the Front and the depth of the Flank proportionably one to another yet would I not have it to exceed the number of eight at any time in depth nor under four for the one extream loseth the fighting of some hands by reason of their over-depth and the other is over-weak to sustain any great shock I shall add one thing more which may concern both Horse and Foot concerning words of Command touching which I find that it was the ancient use witness Polyen lib. 4.217 sect 2. that when the Horse were commanded to turn to the right hand the word of Command was Turn to the Staff that is to that side where the Staff or Lance was then carried and when they were to turn to the left hand the word was Turn to the Reins because the Reins were born in the left hand And so to the Foot the words of Command were of old To the Pike when they were to turn to the right hand and to the Target when they were to turn to the left Now the present words of Command to this purpose both to Horse and Foot are To the right hand To the left hand To the right hand about To the left hand as you were To the left hand about To the right hand as you were Touching which I shall onely offer it to the consideration of our present Commanders whether it were not safer in this case to take up some other words of Command then those that are now in use And this in regard that our present words of Command To the right hand To the left hand are subject to be mistaken as being of too alike sound and may very well be taken one for another And all mistakes of this kind must needs be very disadvantagious and carry with them much of peril as all judicious men will readily confess So that we may do well to be herein presidented by our Sea-men who in their Sea-words of Command for the Condeing of a Ship use not to say Larboard the Helm but Port the Helm when they would have it to be put to the left side of the Ship lest by the affinity of the sound it should be taken for Star-board the Helm which is to have it to be put on the contrary side and that in many cases to a certain ruine And this also may be the better perfected by Aelians rule that the particular be placed first as to say to the Horse To the right hand turn your Face when you would have them turn to the right hand To the Reins or Sword turn your Face when they should turn to the left hand And to the Foot to say To the right hand turn your face when they are to move that way and To the Sword turn your faces when you would have them move to the left hand As for the words Double your Files or Ranks or Length or Depth The doubling of the length is to be used either to over-wing the Enemy or to avoid the